‘Kseniia’s in danger’ ICE detained a Harvard scientist. Now she faces deportation to Russia, where she fears persecution for her anti-war views.
A Russian researcher at Harvard Medical School was detained at Boston Logan Airport upon entering the U.S. after she failed to declare frog embryo samples on her customs declaration, according to her colleagues. Her visa was subsequently revoked, putting her at risk of deportation, and she was sent to an immigration detention center.
Kseniia Petrova was detained on February 16 upon returning to the U.S. from a personal trip to France. She was carrying “a sizable box with several cold packs, which was clearly impossible to hide,” a colleague told Mediazona, adding that she may have made an accidental error on her customs declaration. According to the colleague, the maximum penalty for this violation under U.S. law is a $500 fine, as the frog samples were safe and non-toxic.
Following her detention, Petrova was initially held at a migrant facility in Vermont before being transferred to Louisiana, where she remains. According to her colleague Cora Anderson, she’s being housed in a room with 80 other women. Petrova has legal representation and is receiving assistance in applying for a new visa, but the process could take several months, Anderson added.
Anderson also said that Petrova fears persecution in Russia due to her opposition to the war in Ukraine. Mediazona notes that at the start of the full-scale invasion, Petrova shared links to anti-war videos and a petition calling for Vladimir Putin’s resignation.
According to the Telegram channel Mozhem Obyasnit, Petrova first arrived in Boston in the spring of 2023 from Georgia, where she had moved after leaving Russia to avoid retaliation for her anti-war statements. According to her LinkedIn page, she works as an associate researcher in Harvard’s Department of Systems Biology.
Petrova’s friends and colleagues fear for her safety and have launched a GoFundMe to cover her legal fees and other expenses. “Kseniia’s in danger,” a person familiar with the details of her case told Mozhem Obyasnit.
In 2023, The Guardian reported that the U.S. had “quietly resumed” deportations to Russia after suspending them altogether shortly after the start of the full-scale war. According to the newspaper, one of the first deportees was a man who had fled conscription in Russia and sought asylum in the U.S. after entering the country via Mexico.